Appeals court strikes down union poster rule

View full sizeA federal appeals court has struck down a National Labor Relations Board rule that would have required millions of businesses to put up posters informing workers of their right to form a union.Associated Press file

WASHINGTON -- In another blow to the nation's
dwindling labor unions, an appeals court on Tuesday struck down a
federal rule that would have required millions of businesses to put up
posters informing workers of their right to form a union.

The U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the National
Labor Relations Board violated employers' free speech rights in in
trying to force them to display the posters or face charges of
committing an unfair labor practice.

Unions had hoped the posters
would help them boost falling membership, but business groups argued
that they were too one-sided in favor of unionization.

The court's
ruling is the latest success for business groups that have worked to
prevent the NLRB from shifting the legal landscape in favor of labor
unions, despite President Barack Obama's appointment of several
labor-friendly board members.

Earlier this year, the same appeals
court threw into question hundreds of other NLRB decisions after finding
that Obama's recess appointments to the board were unconstitutional.
The Obama administration is appealing that decision to the Supreme
Court.

The poster rule would have required more than 6 million
businesses to display an 11-by-17-inch notice in a prominent location
explaining the rights of workers to join a union and bargain
collectively to improve wages and working conditions. The posters also
made clear that workers have a right not to join a union or be coerced
by union officials.

The National Association of Manufacturers,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups complained that the
regulation violated free speech rights by forcing employers to display
labor laws in a way that some believed was too skewed in favor of
unionization.

A three-judge panel of the court agreed, ruling that
the National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of employers not
to publish the government's poster if they find the language in it
objectionable. That protection is similar to the First Amendment freedom
of speech, said Judge A. Raymond Randolph, who was appointed to the
court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush.

"First Amendment law
acknowledges this apparent truth: all speech inherently involves choices
of what to say and what to leave unsaid," Randolph said.

Randolph's
decision was joined by Karen LeCraft Henderson, also a Bush appointee,
and Janice Rogers Brown, who was appointed by Bush's son, President
George W. Bush.

"Today, manufacturers claim an important victory
in the fight against an activist NLRB and its aggressive agenda," said
National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons.
"The poster rule is a prime example of a government agency that seeks to
fundamentally change the way employers and employees communicate."

NLRB
spokesman Hank Breiteneicher said the board is reviewing the decision.
The same rule is also being reviewed by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Richmond, Va.

The board had argued that the rule was
needed because many workers -- including recent immigrants, high school
students and other employees in nonunion workplaces -- were not aware of
their right to engage in collective bargaining.

Unions said the
posters were needed to address widespread misunderstandings about labor
law and many workers' fear of exercising their rights under it.

AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka said the poster was no different from other
official notices that employers are required to display explaining wage
and hour rights, health and safety or discrimination laws.

"The
court's twisted logic finds that 'freedom of speech' precludes the
government from requiring employers to provide certain information to
employees," Trumka said. "This is absurd: when workers know their
rights, the laws work as intended."

The rule was supposed to take
effect last year, but the appeals court had blocked it after lower
courts split on whether the rule was valid. A federal judge in
Washington, D.C., found the poster rule was acceptable, but limited how
it could be enforced. Another federal judge in South Carolina said the
labor board exceeded congressional authority when it approved the poster
requirement in 2011.

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